


Pact of Punishment: Hypnos

by Tomuras_Cumsock



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a sad ending, Hypnos Fight (Hades Video Game), Hypnos is lowkey a biblical angel, M/M, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Strong Hypnos (Hades Video Game), Zagreus Dies (Hades Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:40:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28509816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tomuras_Cumsock/pseuds/Tomuras_Cumsock
Summary: Zagreus didn't think that the Pact of Punishment could get much harder. Until he learned who he would be fighting before Father.Hypnos, standing in the usual battleground where he meets Hades, his hand folded on his lap as he floats. He smiles and greets Zagreus like an old friend.
Relationships: Hypnos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 208





	Pact of Punishment: Hypnos

The chill of snow tickled Zagreus' nose as he rose to the final floor of the Underworld. His burning feet melted the snow beneath his feet, barely letting him feel the cold. Exhaling, his breath came out in a cloud before his face. 

Approaching the battlefield where he usually met his father, he paused. Usually, Hades was turned towards the stream, staring into the water as the moon glimmered in its rippling current. But no, his father wasn't present. 

No, instead of his father, Hypnos was there instead. Floating in his seated position, his parchment and feather pen nowhere to be seen. His face was unreadable, his usual smile was not present. Instead, he was frowning. When Zagreus approached, he slowly raised his eyes to meet Zagreus' own. 

He didn't even crack a smile. 

"Hypnos, mate?" Zagreus sputtered, "what are you doing here? Where's Father?"

Hypnos was silent for a moment. He worried his lower lip between his teeth, "he sent me," he replied after a moment. His voice was flat, the tone of someone mourning. It made Zagreus' skin feel frigid, and not by the snow. 

"Sent you?" Zagreus repeated, "wait, he didn't really send you to fight me?" He laughed, expecting Hypnos to at least crack a smile, but Sleep incarnates face remained the same. Zagreus' smile dropped, "you're serious?"

"Like death," Hypnos replied quietly, "please, turn back. I don't want to fight you."

Hypnos' voice was so serious, Zagreus didn't want to quip back. "Turn back?" He scoffed, "Hypnos, I have to do this! I have to see my mother! You don't have to-"

"I don't have to do this?" Hypnos cut Zagreus off, his eyes sharpening, "I face a fate worse than Sisyphus is I go back now. Turn back, Zagreus," Hypnos raised his hand, pointing a finger back at the gate Zagreus has walked through, "for both of us. _Leave_."

"What? No!" Zagreus grabbed the hilt of his sword, "she's right there! I'm not leaving, Hypnos. I'm sorry."

Hypnos smiled a sad smile, and huffed out a laugh, "no, Zagreus. I'm sorry."

Hypnos slid down from his seated position, his feet touching the ground. He held an arm out to the side as if he was grasping for a weapon, and Zagreus struck. 

His sword, raised just like Achillies had taught him when he was young, went straight for Hypnos' heart. As he neared Hypnos, the God's eyes opened. His eyes, usually sleepy and dull, were bright. Alert. 

Zagreus dodged to the side, horror starting to creep up in his chest as he realized just what Hypnos was becoming. 

Hypnos' cloak fell away, revealing his shoulders. The skin rippled and then burst open. Ichor sprayed out from the wound as a pair of massive wings sprung from his back. Zagreus backed up quickly, seeing the blood of the God melting the snow like it was hot iron. 

Hypnos turned his head, twin wings sprouting from his temple and folding over to cover his eyes. The wings coming from his back grew larger and larger, massive and fluffy and drenched in gold. Each feather was as big as Zagreus' sword and sharp as one of Zeus' lightning bolts. 

Hypnos spun on his heel to face Zagreus, his shoulders shaking as more wings sprouted from his body. They jut out painfully from his ribs, his back, his arms until Zagreus could barely see his friend's original body. 

The clump of bleeding wings rose up, trembling as a fearsome golden light leaked from between the trembling feathers. Zagreus yelped, covering his eyes with his arm as the wings snapped open and light poured out from Hypnos. 

When he was able to look back, his friend was no longer there. 

It was Hypnos' body, but this was _not_ Zagreus' friend. 

He was at least twelve feet tall, with bronze skin that shone in the dull moonlight. The wings that had sprung from his back dripped ichor from their feather tips, and the ones that had been covering his eyes peeled away. Hypnos' eyes were all gold, and glowing like a fire. 

His hair, once short, was flowing long. The white-grey curls coiled down to his chest, where his toga had only just barely survived his transformation. As he touched the ground, a portal opened up at his feet.

He held out his hand once more, grasping the middle of a scythe as it rose up from the depths. The portal it came from flooded the battlefield with a thick dark fog, sweet-smelling like Festive Fog. It was cloying, thick, and settled like mud in Zagreus' lungs. 

That's when Zagreus realized why Achillies had told him to fear the little God. Though on the outside Hypnos was sleepy and placid, this was his pure self. When he had first formed, how primal and feral he had been as he poured with power. 

Sleep incarnate. Nothing is stronger than the primordial gods, though Zagreus knew that Hades loved to think that he was the strongest, he was no match for sleep, death, or darkness. They could all topple Olympus in a day if they truly wanted, bringing the Gods to their knees as darkness takes over the world. 

Hypnos opens his mouth, and a sound that Zagreus has never heard comes out. It's a song, he realizes after a moment. A lullaby. It's haunting, low tones as Hypnos takes hold of his scythe and pulls it from the ground. The scythe, Zagreus has heard of it only in stories that Achillies told him as bedtime stories. 

It was forged out of Stygian iron, the strongest material known to man, and hand-made by Hephestus himself. Hypnos' power is infused in the blade, and a single swipe can bring thousands of mortals to an eternal slumber. The handle is curved, each end of the scythe is a mirror of the other. The double blades shine with cleanliness. This is not a weapon to kill but to wound. 

Hypnos takes a step forward, and Zagreus jumps into motion. His Divine Dash blocks the first few slashes from Hypnos, Athena's blessing causing multi-colored sparks of fire and flame to scatter the ground like falling petals. 

Zagreus' raises his sword, pushing against the hilt of Hypnos' scythe. The tough metal doesn't move, and Hypnos leans in close. He's still singing, a fog spilling from his mouth, and as Zagreus inhales his mind is clogged up with exhaustion. 

Covering his mouth, Zagreus dashes back, coughing to clear his lungs of the thick air. Hypnos gives him no time to recover and is already descending upon Zagreus. He leaps into the air, his scythe glinting in the moonlight as he brings it down upon Zagreus' chest. 

The blade slices through Zagreus' shirt, and his own bright red blood spills out onto his front. Instantly, Zagreus' body feels tired. His legs are heavier, and his sword suddenly feels like it gained the weight of Bouldy. He stares at Hypnos and realizes with a gasp that Hypnos is crying. 

Tears stream down his face, clear and shimmering but with an oily sheen. When his tears hit the ground, mist rises up from the liquid and forms hazy figures. His tears, Zagreus realizes, are the memories of those who have sipped from the river Lethe. Memories of death, of loved ones, of life. 

Hypnos strikes again with no warning. He moves like an owl, silent and deadly as he twirls his scythe above his head in a spinning strike, tossing the weapon and sending it careening for Zagreus. 

He tries to bolt, but the blade catches him in the heel. His leg goes numb and he falls to his chest, gasping in pain. When he tries to use his foot, it doesn't move. He looks down, seeing a thin gash where his tendon connects to his foot, useless now. 

"L-Lord Dionysus!" He cries, but his tongue is like sandpaper. His words are far too quiet for his kin to hear him, and his pleas go unheard. Fury rises up in his chest, bubbling with fear as he catches Hypnos' arm with his sword. Gold blood flows out of the wound, but Hypnos doesn't react. It's like he doesn't feel the pain. 

Hypnos stands above Zagreus now, his eyes wide and gold like the coins that fall from Shade's hands. His mouth opens, his song quelling as he speaks. 

" **Χίλια συγγνώμη,** " he whispers, and Zagreus feels tears come to his eyes for the first time in this fight. A thousand apologies. Unlike Hades, Hypnos doesn't want to kill Zagreus. He sees it in the way that Hypnos' arms shake as he raises his scythe above his head for the killing blow, how his mouth twists into a soundless wail of anguish as he brings the weapon down upon Zagreus' chest. 

The killing blow is the same every time. A piercing pain that thrills through Zagreus, making his nerves sing with agony, and then it dulls. It goes away quickly, leaving Zagreus on his back, staring up at the sky as blood leaks out of him. 

Hypnos has not given him an easy way out. No. This is a slow death. 

Hypnos glows once again and then drops to his knees. He's back to normal, his skin pale and smudged with Zagreus' blood as he grabs Zagreus by his face and presses their foreheads together. He's still crying, Lethe trickles down his cheeks and settles warm on Zagreus' skin. 

Zagreus can feel the Styx, how it pulls as his body and begins to drag him into the dirt. Hypnos leans in and connects their lips, a mournful kiss that leaves Zagreus tasting nectar and blood on his tongue as he fades away, dropping into the Styx with a heavy splash.

* * *

Hypnos stays on the battlefield long after Zagreus is gone. Knelt in the same place where his love passed, his blood congealing thickly. His body is freezing, but he doesn't care. Tears still stream down his cheeks, sobs wracking his body. 

A chime rings through the darkness, signaling Thanatos arriving. Hypnos doesn't look up, gripping a shred of cloth that had come off from Zagreus, snagged by his scythe. He holds it to his face, fists clenched so tight that they shake. 

The cloth smells like Zagreus. His weird musk of iron and pomegranates. As Hypnos' tears drip onto it, he sees memories of countless mortals in his reflection. Then he sees someone else. 

Thanatos. 

A cold hand rests on his shoulder, and Thanatos kneels down beside him. 

"Brother," Thanatos murmurs, "come. Let's get you back to the house."

Hypnos curls over with a sob, "I hated it," he gasps, "I hated killing him! I-I can't do it again, Than," his sobs raise into screams of agony, fury, and pain melting through him like the waters of the Phlegethon. "How could I have done that to him?! He didn't deserve it! I should have let him pass!" 

Thanatos' hand is secure on his shoulder and does not move even as Hypnos's tears flood the battlefield. He keeps his mouth shut, the last thing his brother needs is a reminder of who they serve and what fate Hypnos could have faced if he defied his master. 

As a god, Thanatos cannot forget, but he wishes that he could. There is nothing more that he'd like to do than forget how broken Hypnos looks in this moment. How small he looks among the blood and melting snow. Memories of shades reach up to Hypnos, sharing his agony, and Thanatos finally pulls him back. 

Similar to when they were young, before they had grown into their adult bodies, Thanatos carries Hypnos. When they were young, Hypnos would slumber as Thanatos held him. Clutching onto his robes, his eyelashes fluttering with dreams. 

Now all there is are bitter tears of regret. 

Thanatos presses a chaste kiss to Hypnos' forehead and sinks away into the darkness. He covers Hypnos's face with his cloak, shielding his face as he slowly passes through the layers of the Underworld. He takes his time, as there is nothing more important right now than his little brother. 

As they reach the house, he sees Zagreus' body floating and turns away. They don't need to see each other right now. Gods know if Zagreus holds any sort of resentment towards Hypnos, and Hypnos, in turn, is far too fragile to face his lover. 

Instead, he goes to Nyx who wordlessly opens up a portal. He ducks through and slides down into the realm of Chaos. His grandparent, massive and just as primordial as his offspring, takes Hypnos from Thanatos' hold. 

There isn't much Chaos can do, but he holds his little grandchild close and sinks into the nothingness that surrounds him until Hypnos is able to quell his sobs and catch his breath. Even then, Chaos does not move. Hypnos doesn't either, keeping close to his family as he falls into an uneasy slumber. 


End file.
